Older than You
by IndigoGrapefruit
Summary: She was the youngest child to set foot on Gakuen Alice. Ever. Until he came along. He was a month and a day younger than her, and she would forever hold that fact over him. TsubasaMisaki if you squint.


**Indigo's Corner  
A oneshot dedicated to my second favourite couple. I've had this idea for a while now, but I was unsure how exactly to execute it. Here's another go at the "using normal language to describe younger characters" concept, one which I failed terribly in Growing Up. Need I say more? :)**

**Disclaimer  
Disclaimed.**

* * *

She would forever remember her age when she came to Gakuen Alice: three and a week old. Exactly. If anything, she was precise. Her best subject was math, and she was good at it. She could never risk imprecision because one teensy mistake could ruin everything she worked so hard for. For she was Misaki Harada, the _second_ youngest Alice to ever set foot on the school.

It was cloudy that day that she stood before towering iron gates. The light gray clouds completely veiled the sun, blocking out the sunlight and threatening to rain. Yet not one drop fell from the sky. It was just cloudy enough to cause an ominous feeling, a shiver down your spine. She was wearing a pink and white striped dress and clenching tightly onto her mother's hand.

Her mom was wearing a dress too, but Misaki forgot the pattern. She'd like to have thought, though, that it was covered in circles, overlapping each other and each with a different colour. The three year old at that time repetitively tugged on it when they stood before the gate.

"Mama," she called, looking up at an older woman with curly bubblegum pink hair, a shade darker than hers. "Mama, you said we were gonna go play!"

The older woman grabbed onto Misaki's hand and clenched it tightly, afraid to let go. She looked ahead at the scenery inside the gates expectantly. Much later, Misaki would realize that she was waiting.

Three and a week year old Misaki sulked impatiently. Sticking out her bottom lip into a childish pout, she tugged on her mother's hand a several times, each time harder than before, until she pulled her hand right out of her mother's grasp. "Mama!" she screeched, and only then did her mother look down.

"Why Mama not answer Misaki?" she demanded, crossing her arms, and proud of herself for using a big word.

Her mother bent down until she was at the same level as her child. Her hand caressed Misaki's cheek softly and she smiled. "Mama's waiting for someone, Misaki."

"Who?!" Who could have possibly been more important to mama than her? She was gonna kill the person. Nobody steals Misaki Harada's Mama!

"Ah, there he is!" she exclaimed not a minute after.

Misaki looked up and saw a blonde man with a crazy smile running toward them. Her eyes grew wide and she took an involuntary step back. As he approached them, the gates made a great screeching sound and started to part. The man stopped and stood on the other side, grinning crazily. He motioned with his hand for them to come closer.

Misaki felt her mom grip her hand once more. "Mama?"

"Let's go," was her reply.

Mom and daughter, hand in hand, they trudge toward the gate. The blonde teacher waved to them back and forth almost too enthusiastically. Misaki noticed that even as they took steps toward the gateway, the teacher's feet did not budge at all. He just stood there, inches from where the gate was before it opened.

Her small legs had to take several steps to match one of her mother's strides so it was hard for her to keep up. Misaki was just about to open her mouth to tell her mother to slow down when her foot slipped and she fell flat on her face.

"Oh Misaki," her mother fussed as she got out a napkin and started wiping the dirt off of Misaki's face.

Her lips were trembling, she knew. She bit them to stop. She wasn't a baby anymore! She refused to cry in front of a stranger! Especially one that was laughing at her face right now. That really wasn't nice of him.

"Be careful," her mother scolded and took her hand.

They approached the gateway and Misaki stopped before the blonde man. He was mumbling things with her mother that she couldn't comprehend. She furrowed her brow and tried to pick words out of the conversation, but it still didn't make sense. With a shrug, Misaki gave up and decided to enjoy the scenery.

_It's so green!_ was her first thought. She saw trees and shrubs everywhere. Even the buildings were surrounded and covered in vegetation. _How fun it would be if I can live here forever!_

She had no idea.

"Misaki!" A voice called and disturbed her thoughts. Misaki whizzed her head around and grinned brightly at her mother.

"Mama!" she answered and ran into the arms of her mother. "Can we go play?"

"Misaki." Her mother's tone was serious this time. She bent down and put her hands on Misaki's shoulders. "You're three now. You're old enough to start kindergarten. Mama told you about kindergarten before. Do you remember?"

Misaki bobbed her head up and down several times. When she was two, mama told her about a place where she could play and learn and make friends with other kids her age, lots and lots of kids. She also mentioned that there were teachers and other adults that would treat Misaki as their own daughter.

"It's called kindergarten," she had said.

"Well," she continued, "Mama's gonna send you to kindergarten now. You have fun and listen to your teacher, okay?" She gestured to the blond man when she said "teacher".

Misaki nodded.

"Don't cause trouble for Mama." Her mother's eyes were shining with tears and that was when Misaki realized that there was something wrong. "Be a good girl now. Mama's gonna pick you up later today." She chocked out a sob. "Have fun without Mama." She licked her lips nervously and stared at Misaki with a pleading look. "Don't ever forget Mama will always love you. You'll always have a place in Mama's heart no matter how far apart we are."

She wiped a big fat tear from her Mama's cheek. Misaki beamed and told her, "Misaki will always love Mama too!"

The blond man cleared his throat uneasily which caused Misaki to shift her attention to him. "Hi there," he introduced himself, "I'm Yukihira-sensei, but you can call me Yukki. I'll be your teacher from now on! We'll have so much fun together! What's your name?"

"Misaki," she said flatly.

"C'mon then!" he exclaimed and took her hand. "Follow me!"

The loud noise indicated that the iron gates were closing. Misaki was happily skipping alongside her new teacher. She was awed by the hugeness and greenness of the place. So captivated was the young Alice that she never looked back and never saw her mother collapse against the gate in a helpless heap.

She was humming as she skipped. There was something about the place that just made her feel all warm and sunshiny inside – which might have something to do with the fact that the clouds were now parted and rays of sunshine illuminated the school.

"Whoa! Slow down now Misaki!" her teacher called as he ran up to her.

She stopped skipping and slowed her pace to a stride, but the bright smile remained on her face. She looked up and scrutinized her teacher for the first time.

"Yukki-sensei!" she exclaimed.

"Hmm?"

"You have yellow hair!"

Yukihara laughed at this and lifted a chunk of his hair. It glistened in the sunlight like gold. Misaki gasped in amazement. "Yup!" he exclaimed. "And you have pink hair."

"Yup!" she echoed, and added as an afterthought, "But you have black eyebrows."

He blinked thrice and tried to look up at his eyebrows to no avail. His silly attempts made Misaki giggle. "I do?"

She nodded.

"Well, I guess I do have black eyebrows!" he said.

"Mama said hair is the same colour as eyebrows," Misaki protested.

"Well hair is the same colour as eyebrows," Yukihara told her, "Like you have pink hair and pink eyebrows, don't you?"

"But sensei's hair is not the same as his eyebrows!"

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Well that's only because I dyed it."

"Dyed?"

He grinned, flashing his pearly teeth at her. "Yup! Sensei coloured his hair! It used to be black but now it's yellow!"

Clapping her hands, Misaki commented, "Misaki wants to colour her hair too!"

Yukihara furrowed his brow and faked an appalled expression. "Why? You have good hair!"

She frowned. "I have _pink _hair." She held up one of her curls and looked at it with disgust.

"What's wrong with pink? I like pink!"

She shook her head furiously, her curls bouncing everywhere.

"Well I think it makes you unique."

"Yoo-nee-k?"

"You know, like special." He smiled. "It makes you who you are."

"But sensei's hair dyed."

He chuckled and ran his hand through his sleek, golden hair. "Well sensei was a bad boy when he was young." He winked at Misaki. "But Misaki, you promised your mother to be a good girl. You shouldn't follow sensei's example." He laughed heartily.

Misaki crossed her arms and sulked. She was about to open her mouth to argue but she was interrupted by another.

"Sensei!"

She was and would always be the prettiest girl Misaki had ever seen. Warm eyes, the shade of melted dark chocolate accompanied by soft brown hair with a tint of gold that could only be seen when the sunlight shone on it. She liked to have imagined the girl as a princess from another world. Ashe was so confident that she was almost glowing as she jumped into Yukihara's arms.

The change she saw in Yukihara, though, was even more extraordinary. At the sight of her, his eyes lit up and his mouth curved up naturally into a goofy grin. He had a look of bliss as she leapt into his arms. "Yuka," he sighed in a lovesick voice. He stroked her hair tenderly with a feeling Misaki couldn't quite make out. All she knew was that he looked at this student in the same way Daddy looked at Mama

And that it was warm. Their feelings were like an overflowing river of warmth. It was warmer than sunshine and very addicting. She wanted more. Misaki closed her eyes and smiled. More… more…

"Alright that's enough," someone deadpanned. The warmth disappeared and Misaki opened her eyes, sulking.

Another blonde – a natural this time, Misaki could tell by his eyebrows – was in the act of dragging Yuka away from Yukihara. "Narumi," the pretty girl addressed him, to which he retorted, "Sempai."

Yukihara was blushed and scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry bout that."

The adolescent called Narumi rolled his eyes and commented, "May I remind you not to perform your acts of love in front of a child."

Misaki crossed her arms and sulked. Yuka mirrored her action.

"You'll scar her for life," he rambled on. Though Narumi was rude, Misaki mused at the sight of a student scolding a teacher. "And she's smaller than most. How old is she anyway?"

"Oh, right. I forgot. Misaki-chan, how old are you?"

Misaki forgot all about sulking and exclaimed in the brightest voice, "I'm three and a week old!"

She remembered Narumi giving her a somewhat affectionate grin and ruffling her hair roughly. "Congratulations kiddo," he told her, "You're the youngest person to set foot on this school."

She couldn't help but smirk at that she, Misaki Harada, was special.

She never saw them after that day, the teacher and the student. She never felt what she felt that day either, no matter how hard she searched for it. Things changed after she arrived. They said the teacher died. She was shocked, but not sad. She might have been sad if she knew him better, but Misaki never got the chance to know that teacher. She never realized, though, that the side she saw of Yukihara was a side that even some of the most intimate to him had never seen.

They told her she was an Alice. They told her what an Alice was and what the school was for. They told her it was sort of like a camp and that her mother would pick her up when summer ends. She was too young to realize that they lied to her. They told her to work hard to control her Alice and not to let her emotions take over. She was a good girl. She studied hard, like Mama told her. But the other reason why she worked so hard was that she had pride being the youngest child ever. She wanted to show them that she could be better than what they expected.

They all loved her. She was the angel with the chubby cheeks and dollish pink curls.

* * *

The day he came to the academy was the day she was promoted to a single star. She felt haughty. She saw people twice her age that couldn't manage their Alice as well as she could manage hers. It wasn't even as if she was being mean or snobby on purpose. She just felt superior.

She felt so haughty that she decided to skip her usual lessons and sneak out to play. She was tiptoeing past a slightly ajar door when she overheard some teachers talking.

"Shadow manipulation, correct me if I'm wrong. He's a young one, not yet three. The youngest Alice discovered actually. Luckily we had someone about his age come in almost a month ago. She'll be the perfect as his partner, and that way he needn't worry about not fitting in. Is that okay sweetie?"

She peeked inside the room through that crack. There was a spiky haired boy with large eyes, the new youngest Alice ever to set foot on the academy. She secretly glared at him in contempt. He nodded twice, unaware, which she took as a response to whoever was asking him the question.

"Good, we're all set then!"

She heard footsteps going her way and she immediately backed a few steps away and hurriedly took off as fast as her little legs could take her. Still, she failed to make it to the end of the hallway before they stepped out of the room.

"Ah, Misaki-chan!" Misaki froze when her name was called. The kind of freezing where you were doing something bad and a teacher just caught you, which also happened to be just what was happening.

But instead the voice continued with, "What a coincidence! We were just talking about you!" Apparently the teacher didn't realize that she wasn't supposed to be in that hallway at that time. "Come meet little Tsubasa here! He's going to be your new partner."

She turned around warily and realized his eyes were on her. He was scrutinizing her curiously and it gave her the shudders. It was creepy when someone was looking from at you from head to toe like that and made a point that they were.

"Hi," he squeaked shyly, "I'm Tsubasa. What's your name?"

"Misaki," she replied flatly and he looked away, suddenly aware that she did not like him very much. "Nice to meet you."

"Why don't you two go outside and get to know each other better?" the teacher suggested.

Before either of them could protest, strong hands shooed them toward the courtyard and suddenly they were sitting on opposite sides of a bench. Misaki made no protest and swung her legs in a back and forth motion while humming a song her Mama used to sing her.

Tsubasa on the other hand was biting his lip and trying to figure out how to approach the girl. "Um," he attempted and she diverted her attention to him, tilting her head almost expectantly. He swallowed a lump in his throat and croaked, "You're pretty."

Misaki had to admit she was kinda sorta completely taken back from his comment. She was prepared to hate him with all her heart for destroying her pride and taking her title. "Thank you," she muttered, trying to sound cold but to no avail.

"Let's be friends," he suggested, more confidently this time.

"Let's not," she deadpanned.

"But why?" he demanded.

She thought of all the reasons not to be friends with him. Who liked him anyway? Shadow Manipulation wasn't even all that impressive. She could make doppelgangers! That'd beat shadow manipulation any day. Besides, his hair looked like that animal she saw in one of her picture books. She couldn't remember what it was called but it had lots of spikes and they were poisonous.

"Fine," she finally agreed, "But you have to listen to me. I'm older than you."

"Okay!" he exclaimed. "So what you wanna do?"

She tapped her finger on her chin several times and thought hard. The teachers were gone so they could do whatever they wanted. Misaki decided that she was gonna ridicule him, make him realize that she was better than him.

"Let's play tag," she decided.

"Okay!"

"I'm 'it'," she told him, "You betta run or I will get you!"

He giggled and took off, almost tripping on a rock but gaining his balance. She scowled at him. He was trying to rub it in her face that she tripped in front of someone else, wasn't he? Fine. She would so get him later.

She let a smirk come over her lips when she finished counting. "Ten! Here I come, ready or not."

He was standing on the other side of the field, almost a hundred metres away from her. She knew he was confident that she would never get him. Too bad he was ignorant.

She quickly duplicated herself into nine other identical Misakis. Her smirk grew bigger as Tsubasa's eyes widened. They all sprinted toward him at the same time, bearing identical smirks. Terrified, the poor kid turned and ran with all his might. He had a head start, but Misaki knew she was faster. Her clones divided themselves and herded him to one spot.

He peered back and saw her not far behind him. He tried to outrun her, but she was fast. He'd never seen anyone his age as fast as her. Tsubasa gave out a cry as his foot hit the root of a tree and he propelled forward and landed face first in the dirt.

He flipped himself over onto his backside. His eyes were tearing up, threatening to overflow. He bit his bottom lip to stop it from trembling. His dad told him that he could never cry in front of a girl. He idolized his dad. There was no way he was going to cry in front of her, even if she was a meanie bobeanie and there were ten of her towering over him smiling the same triumphant smile right now.

He would never cry in front of her.

Misaki was frustrated. Why can't he just cry dammit? She could clearly see that he wanted to. She had won the game, but she couldn't win completely until she see him blubbering with tears. All ten of her reached down and tapped him in different places at the same time. "Tag, you're it," she announced, her doppelgangers echoing her. She could see that upset him even more. Her mouth curved up.

But she hadn't expected him to turn around and curve into a ball. She heard sobbing sounds. She knew he was crying. She stood there and smiled, and he knew it. It made her even more satisfied that he was hiding his face in shame. She was a sadist. His pain was her pleasure.

"D-don't l-look at me," he sniffed, hugging his knees tighter. "D-daddy said never cry when a girl is looking."

Suddenly, she was infuriated. "Look at me!" she screeched, all her clones attacking. They tore his arms from his knees and forced him out of his curled up stance. They dragged him to his feet and presented him in front of the original. She raised a hand and was about to slap him, but she became immobilized.

He walked around, one hand wiping tears from his face. The other went around, poking Misaki's clones until every one of them disappeared and only she was left. He tapped her on the shoulder gently and said, "You looked. I said not to. You saw me crying so you lose."

He left her speechless.

* * *

She went to his birthday party. She was the only one who was invited. She was the only one who showed up. His no star bedroom compared to her one star was like an attic compared to a house. Nonetheless, she sat down next to him at the only table in his room. They were on better terms now, but she still could not forget him.

He drew four stick figures. Two big ones and two little ones. He was colouring them in when Misaki looked over from her own picture of the brown haired princess and her blonde prince and noticed that one of the little ones had pink curls.

"Is that me?" she asked, pointing.

"Yup!" he exclaimed, beaming, "And that me!" He pointed to the small spiky haired figure beside her.

"Who they?" She pointed to the two large ones, one with identical hair to Tsubasa's, only dark brown and the other with sleek ebony hair in a bob.

"Mommy and daddy," he told her. "They always with me on my birthday."

"But not this time," she pointed out.

"Not this time," he repeated. It was silent between them until he shrugged it off. "Maybe they will surprise me!" He went back to colouring.

She suddenly remembered her Mama. She missed her a lot. Mama, who had the same hair as her and bought her pretty dresses. Here she had to earn her own money to buy herself dresses. And they weren't even as pretty as the ones Mama bought.

"Who they?" Tsubasa interrupted her train of thought as he peered at her paper.

She blushed. "Yukki-sensei and Yuka. Yukki-sensei was my teacher. He died."

"Oh. Sorry."

She shrugged it off with a shrug nonchalantly as he had done. "It's okay. Yuka's a pretty princess. She live in a big castle. She come here and magics into a student. She fall in love with Yukki. She take him back to her castle and marry him. They ride on big white horses and live happily ever after." Misaki grinned a goofy grin. "I wish I could be like her."

"You pretty!" Tsubasa exclaimed. "You could be a princess! I can be the prince! We can play castle!"

"You can't be prince!" she protested. "You younger than me!" She shuddered at the horror of marrying someone younger than her. In fairy tales, the prince was always older than the princess. He couldn't be younger. It just couldn't make sense. What if the prince was younger than Cinderella? Even thinking of it felt wrong to her. "Da prince has to be older!"

"Can too!" he argued, crossing his arms stubbornly. "I can be who I wanna be!"

"Da prince is _always_ older than da princess," she protested just as stubbornly, mimicking him.

"Fine!" he finally spoke up, "I'll be prince and you can be queen!"

"I don't wanna be queen," she sulked. "I wanna be a princess!"

"Then you can be a princess."

"But you can't be prince!" she quickly exclaimed.

"But we both three."

She shook her head. "Nooooo! I three and a month! I older!"

"When your birffday?" he questioned curiously.

"June 14th," she answered proudly.

"Then you a month and a day older," he concluded. "But we still both three."

"But I still older than you," she said with her triumphant smirk.

He let her have the last word this time.

* * *

"Dance with me!" Tsubasa exclaimed, holding out his hand. Even though he wore a dark mask over his eyes she still recognized him by his spiky hair, and he by her cotton candy curls.

She had on a pink mask, the same shade of pink as his curls. She threw her hair over her left shoulder and walked the opposite way. "No," she stated, "I not gonna dance with younger guy." He was chasing after her, but she managed to lose him somewhere in the crowd.

Actually, she wouldn't have minded dancing with Tsubasa. It was just… the whole school was gathered together at the dance and she wanted to find the pretty girl she saw from before. Mama once said she would die without Daddy. If Yukki-sensei died, then what would happen to that pretty girl?

"Oof!" she exclaimed as she bumped into someone much taller than her. She looked up and saw blond hair. As he looked down, she realized that he was the guy that dragged Yuka away from Yukki that day.

He furrowed his brow for a moment, trying to remember her. Then it came to him. "Oh, it's that midget from the other day. I didn't know they allowed preschoolers at dances. Geez, this school…"

"Where's Yuka?" she asked.

He jerked involuntary at the name. She saw, but he didn't know that she did. "Gone."

"Where?"

Narumi shrugged. "Far away. She won't be back. Now don't bother me kiddo."

She watched him weave in and out of dancing couples until he was out of sight. He looked like he was disturbed. He was probably going out to get some fresh air and clear his mind.

But Yuka. He said Yuka was gone. What did he mean by that? Was she gone? Forever? She closed her eyes and reminisced the moment Yuka leaped into Yukki-sensei's arms. Misaki knew they had something special. She sighed and shook her head slowly. What went wrong? The pretty princess was supposed to get her happily ever after. The prince was not supposed to die.

But the prince did die.

So what happens to the princess now?

"Misaki!" It was Tsubasa's voice. There was no mistaking it. Not a moment later, he caught up with her and was standing by her side. "Misaki, what's wrong?"

"Tsubasa," she said in a defeated tone, "What if prince dies? What happens to princess?"

He blinked several times. She was spaced out, staring at one spot. He took her hand and spun her in a twirl.

"Let's dance," he said, grinning.

She couldn't help but move alongside him. He guided her through most of the dance, even if they were just randomly making up their own dance moves. The speculators thought it was extremely cute, and one couple even applauded them when it was over.

"But," Misaki protested, "If the prince dies…"

"Say I die," he told her, "What would you do?"

"I…" she was stumped. "I dunno." She looked him in the eye. "I'll be sad. Very very sad. But I will live. I am Misaki. I don need a prince to live on. But you will foreva and eva be a part of me. Deep deep down. Even if you die."

"Even if I younger than you?" He grinned and waddled his fingers teasingly.

She nodded. "Even if you younger than me."

Because he was as close to a prince as she could get.

_And they lived happily ever after..._

* * *

**Well, toodles m'darlings, I'm going to go work on Three Wishes chapter four now :)!**

**Spam me with love - err I mean, reviews.**

**Yours Truly,  
-IndigoGrapefruit**


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